Total Page : 336
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date : 2009 10 19
>> Hmm what to believe
This book was quite readable but I wonder exactly how accurate and complete it is I won t gripe about minor technical inaccuracies like some of the reviewers have see 1 and 2 star reviews but the simple fact that every personality in the book is black and white good or bad makes me believe much has been oversimplified Yes the book describes Pinchot s personal quirks and shortcomings but Tim Egan is clearly a huge fan of everything G P and Roosevelt did They could do no wrong The overall effect is significant bias in the storytelling We never learn the pros and cons of the Forest Service s or the timber barons actions It is certainly not a simple matter of good vs evil The writing comes across as shallow Most of the minor characters in this book also suffer from the same problem They seem like stereotypes doing all good or all evil not real people
My other complaint is you never get a good feel of scope How large was the Forest Service at the time of the fire Were this fire and the western timber barons the only forest related issues of the era What about the effects of the fire in other areas it burned The writing is very qualitative and not very quantitative
The overall agenda that the book clearly has troubled me even though I am a political progressive and a former Forest Service employee progressives and the Forest Service are the heroes in this book by the way It really pushes a single point of view and that made me uncomfortable because I never felt like I was learning both sides of the issues There are other non fiction writers who do a brilliant job of presenting the full story in an entertaining way This feels like we are only getting half of a story
But that said the book inspired me to learn a lot more about the early 1900s and to research Egan s claims to find out for myself if he was telling the whole story So big picture I give it 4 stars It made me want to learn
>> Did not meet expectations
I have a great interest in the history of forest management and conservation but this book did not translate into an interesting read for me
Like others I felt that author was committed to unidimensional portraits of the characters in the story at the expense of interesting information about these individuals and especially at the expense of information about forests
I did enjoy the description of Pinchot and Roosevelt boxing upon first meeting However I had to wonder who s view of the situation I was reading and how this got passed down to us Perhaps inclusion of this would have interfered with the author s efforts to set up his characters but it is the kind of droll background information that I missed
>> A great story and a good reminder of our need to remain vigilant
Timothy Egan writes another wonderful history about the terrible fire that destroyed millions of acres of forest in Montana and Idaho is the summer of 1910 Surrounding the fire he also tells the story of how the forest service was created and fought against It is also an important reminder that the battle continues to be fought today
The creation of the Forest Service was the brainchild of Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt A couple of progressive Republicans who would find no acceptance in their party today Between the two of them they essentially created our national parks as you see them today
Egan does an excellent job of beginning his story with the introduction of these two extraordinary Americans It is important to tell not only as a historic background to the fire itself but as a way of reminding the reader how the country was feeling in 1910 It was an aggressive time of growth with Robber Barons like JP Morgan consuming the countries natural resources as fast and rudely as humanly possible
Pinchot and Roosevelt showed the American people a different path and suggested that these resources belonged to them and shouldn t be squandered completely on the altar of greed This was radical and ground breaking thinking in the early twentieth century and Roosevelt could not point to similar examples anywhere else in the world The robber barons fought him at every step but the hugely popular President would not be denied
In typical fashion his political opponents fought a rear guard battle against the newly created Forest Service Whittle away at the laws call them useless and a taxpayer waste and deny them funding Sounds like every social program ever passed social security and medicare come to mind
The result of all this negative behavior in the summer of 1910 was a Forest Service badly stretched with personnel covering territories of thousands of square miles A public that often gave them no respect and even open hostility except when they wanted something from them And finally a complete lack of resources for equipment and recruiting firefighters
Egan sets the stage for the fire and then brings the events of those days vividly back with first hand accounts Characters such as Pinkie Adair and the great Ed Pulaski feature strongly in his narrative Those of us from Washington State will appreciate the story of Ranger Joe Halm and his young heroics during the firestorm
He also reminds us ever so politely that the battle is not over He recounts a celebration in 2005 euglogizing Ed Pulaski and featuring George W Bush appointee Mark Rey head of the Forest Service Rey was an odd choice to preside over this ceremony in the woods He had been a powerful advocate for the logging industry a lobbyist and partisan arguing fiercely against protection for dying species and wild lands in the public forests There was no mention of conservation during the ceremony
Perhaps a not so subtle reminder that the battle continues and there are few who are fighting on the side of forests anymore The few newspapers who remain in business are corporately owned and therefore interested only in profit and not conservation Remember as long as there are forests to cut somebody will want to cut them
